Writing Blog

Why Colleges Want Your Essays

I’m gonna talk to you a little bit at first about why colleges want the essay in the first place given that it takes a lot of time for you to write it and a lot of time for you for them to read it and I think Bob gave you a good sense of that they really want to know who you are I like to use a quote from Virginia Woolf which I will paraphrase here but Virginia Woolf said that events have little meaning until we know to whom they happened so lots of students have listed similar things on their applications those are the events that those are events that have already happened the way to convince the college to care about you is to use your essay to distinguish your experience of those events from others who have had those shared experiences this is the only part of the application that is still under your control your grades for the most part are water under the bridge. Find out tips and hints for your application at Edusson.

I don’t think you’re going to have most of you an earth-shattering life experience in the next few weeks your teachers are already writing your letters of recommendation so it is unlikely that an academic experience right now is going to dramatically affect their content but the the essay is entirely under your control and I’m hoping that you will seize this opportunity and use it perhaps to make a difference in the admissions process for you.when colleges go to committee they have eliminated some applications that just didn’t meet the standard for grades and test scores that they are looking for a few students will be admitted without going to committee because they have some outstanding qualification that is rare and unusual but the committee is going to sit down and read the essays from a number of students any one of whom would fit the college’s academic profile and from those they are going to choose who to admit in order to build a community they’re going to look from that group to find those who are going to add the most to their campus community both in and out of the classroom if everyone that they admitted was the same it would be boring. Learn how to write about your experiences here.

So there is no formula for the story that you’re going to tell colleges need listeners they need talkers they need leaders they need worker bees you are going to tell a story which helps them understand who you are and how you are different from others who have shared similar experiences you cannot try to guess who the college is looking for whether they need more oboe players or more students from Maryland but you can do your best to explain something genuine about who you are that distinguishes you from all of those other students the vast majority of essays end up being neutral in the admissions process a colleague calls them so what essays the college will read the essay and say so what this is just another kid who played sucker.

Contributor to the New York Times Bestselling anthology A SEASON IN THE HIGHLANDS

Author of THE WEDDING RAFFLE, named as one of the “Best Romances of 1996” by the Detroit Free Press.

Geralyn Dawson is the critically acclaimed author of eleven novels and two novellas. A graduate of Texas A&M University, Geralyn is an advisory board member of the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation. She lives in Texas with her husband and three children.